In Plain Sight

Walls covered to the brim with writing, the floor filled with thick stacks of papers as tall as a person, and ten different puppets fast at work as they wrote away at their desks.

At the very front of the room was a man, however only his back was showing, which made his appearance a mystery.

All Rinka could make out was the incredibly long white hair that reached down to the floor, the same white color as her own.

The man was focused looking up at the screen slightly above him, meanwhile his hands on both sides were moving in a strange rhythm, as if controlling the entire room through this movement alone.

Just as Rinka entered the cave, the man stopped, his fingers becoming completely still as all the puppets also froze in place.

Seeing this, Rinka couldn't help but freeze as she held her breath, her heart racing despite knowing that she shouldn't be afraid.

Waiting with anticipation, Rinka watched as the man swiveled around in his chair, finally revealing a both foreign and familiar face.

Seeing the handsome face, Rinka's eyes went slightly red, her memories rushing back to her younger years, back when her father was always with her.

However, compared to the face from those memories, this face seemed more 'mature' despite looking the exact same.

If there was any difference, it was the thick white beard that covered the man's mouth, reaching all the way down to his chest.

"Dad…" Rinka couldn't help but say.

"Rinka, you've become so beautiful." Minos spoke with a smile, his voice incredibly gravely after having not used it for so long.

Hearing Minos's voice, the slight distance Rinka felt between her and her father immediately disappeared, as if he had never left.

"Dad!" Running up, Rinka jumped into Minos's arms as she began crying heavily.

"There, there, it's okay. Your dad will never leave you." Minos said, patting Rinka's back gently.

"You liar! You left me all alone while you worked here." Rinka complained, as she wiped away some of her tears.

"You're right, I suppose you must hate me by now."

"No, how could I hate you? Grandpa told me everything, I want to help you!" Rinka said firmly.

"Help me, huh? Why not?" Minos smiled as he stroked his long beard.

"Dad, you looked much more handsome without the beard, you should cut it off." Rinka couldn't help but say.

"You think? But I've gotten used to it by now." Minos laughed, as he continued to play with his long beard.

Seeing her dad twirling his beard around, Rinka couldn't help but become curious, also taking his beard and playing with it, shaping it all sorts of things as she giggled.

Minos almost thought his little girl had already grown up, but seeing her acting so childish, he smiled, glad that his little girl was still around.

As Rinka was playing with his beard, Minos was thinking about new solutions, but suddenly, as he looked down at Rinka, it was as if a lightning bolt had directly struck him.

"Rinka, you little genius!" Minos said with a boisterous laugh.

"Huh? Genius?" Rinka said, confused.

"Come help dad out, I need a little blood sample." Minos said.

"Blood sample? Okay!" Rinka said, still not sure what her dad was on about, but more than happy to help.

"Stay still." Minos said, before drawing a small syringe of blood from Rinka.

With the sample in hand, Minos quickly put it into the DNA Extraction Pod as he waited for the results.

Minos's patience had already been refined to a god-like level by now, so the time passed by in a flash, but Rinka was less entertained, instead walking around the cave as she looked at all the strange knicknacks.

As the result came out, Minos quickly looked through Rinka's genetic information, his thoughts soon being confirmed as he determined that Rinka wasn't actually cursed.

He couldn't help but slap himself hard as he realized what an idiot he had been. The answer was right in front of him yet he had been avoiding it.

Fortunately, Rinka was still very young, so he hadn't yet wasted her potential, but it seemed he had to prepare everything for her.

Most children started cultivation at around 10 years old, but this didn't mean that they didn't do anything before that.

Wealthy families would splurge on all sorts of medicinal baths that would cleanse and temper a child's body, making their future cultivation much smoother.

Rinka was at the perfect age to begin these medicinal baths, so Minos had managed to catch things just in time, but this was also a lesson to him, a reminder that sometimes the answer to his problems were closer than he thought.

Of course, the solution wasn't yet confirmed, but Minos was already confident after seeing Rinka's DNA, not to mention these four years hadn't been completely wasted.

While he hadn't managed to find a solution to the curse, Minos's genetic knowledge had already reached an unfathomable level, far beyond the height any Lukalu person had ever reached.

Looking at Rinka's DNA, Minos realized her body had strong antibodies, inherited from him, which immediately destroyed the curse with no problem.

As long as he could take this antibody and make it universally applicable, he should be able to solve the problem from the root!

Taking a sample of these antibodies, Minos got back to work, Rinka watching over his shoulder curiously as he wrote down his final thesis.

After tweaking the antibodies slightly, Minos prepared a sample and released it onto the curse, looking in through the Crystal Amplifier with absolute focus.

His heart was pounding at a thousand miles a minute as he watched, gulping as the result finally revealed itself.

With still-eyes, Minos watched as the antibodies destroyed the curse, leaving everything else alone, much to his exhilaration.

After waiting for a while to see if there were any changes, Minos finally pulled away, a smile uncontrollably forming on his face as he lifted Rinka up and tossed her into the air.

"My little genius, you've done it!" Minos laughed.

"Done what?" Rinka said while laughing.

"You've solved the curse, it's finally done!" Minos said.

"Really! Awesome!" Rinka said, never expecting that the solution would come so rapidly.

Placing Rinka back on the floor, Minos went back to his desk, testing the antibodies on a few other samples while still keeping his eye on them to see if anything changed.

Hours passed by slowly like this, and Rinka was frolicking around the cave as Minos confirmed the results once and for all.

After making sure for the hundredth time that there were no problems, Minos couldn't help but lean back in his chair with a content smile, laughing boisterously.

Hearing his laugh, Rinka stopped playing and quickly ran up beside him, curious as to why her father was laughing so happily.

"What happened dad?" She asked.

"Something great, in fact, better than great, something amazing!" Minos smiled, standing up from his chair and rubbing Rinka's white hair vigorously.

"Hey, cut it out!" Rinka said annoyedly, slapping her dad's hand away.

"So you do hate me." Minos said, pretending to squeeze out a tear.

"No, that's not what I meant…!" Rinka quickly explained, afraid that she had hurt her dad's feelings.

"Is that so? Then take this." Minos said, his frown quickly vanishing as he began tickling Rinka all over the place.

"Haha, stop it! You li-ahahaha!" Rinka said, laughing hard as she tried to escape her dad's nimble hands.

Unfortunately, how could the young Rinka compare to her old man? After running around for a bit and laughing to exhaustion, Minos stopped, letting Rinka breathe.

"You liar! Hmph, I should have believed mom when she said you were a troublemaker!" Rinka groaned.

"Troublemaker, huh? So that's what you think? What a shame, and here I was just about to give you your present…" Minos said with a tsk, as if disappointed.

"Present?" Rinka asked, her ears perking.

"Yeah, but since you think I'm such a troublemaker, I guess you wouldn't like it." Minos explained.

"Wait a minute, I was just kidding, you're no troublemaker!" Rinka said, not wanting to lose out on her present.

"Really? Then give me a kiss as an apology." Minos said while pointing to his cheek.

"Fine!" Rinka said, kissing Minos on the cheek.

"And here." Minos spoke, pointing to his other cheek.

"Okay." Rinka obliged again.

"And here, and here, and here, and here." Minos said, pointing to his forehead, his chin and both his ears, causing Rinka to go red in the face in annoyance.